As September ushers in cooler days and school routines again, I thought I’d share from my heart my thoughts about this new school year and our homsechool journey. Sadly, it has taken me 8 homeschool years to realize that I am not required to imitate the public schools, my homeschool friends, or any of the homeschooling guru’s I’ve heard at conventions. I “knew” this in my head, but I’m afraid my heart still did not grasp it and I kept striving to prove that we were just as smart as the next guy, that we were “serious” homeschoolers, and that we were way more academic than our local schools. I often would ask my nephew or neighborhood children what they were doing in school . I felt this huge need to compare what we were doing in our homes with what our local government school was doing. So much of it was based upon my own pride rather than upon what the Lord cares about for our family.
I’m not feeling pressure to do everything and learn every subject this year, and our “schedule” is simply a guide that we can follow if we want to. Thus far, our school year has been a delight….our best year. My boys keep saying, “We are having fun doing school this year” or “I had a nice day today mom.” (Big Grin :)) To homeschool Mom types like me, this is as gold………we live to hear such words don’t we? I’m still relishing in their words. This year, our home is a peaceful and happy place to be, we are not rushing around much, hurrying through lessons, or stressing out about completing books.
